Haliimaile still looks like an old plantation camp even though the homes in the camp are privately owned, now, and no longer company worker housing. As a typical self-contained camp, Haliimaile had its own camp store, a theatre (long-gone now), as well as a dispensary (also defunct) and a gym and recreational activities. Parents sent their children to Makawao for schooling and on Sundays, the families attended church in Makawao as well.

When Kamehameha III proclaimed that the Makawao area would be the nation's first experiment in private land ownership, he exempted from sale a tract of land that was one of the first used to experiment with growing sugar in the Makawao area. The Haliimaile Plantation was established in 1848 and was operated by William A. McLane. It changed hands and names a number of times in the ensuing years.

With the rise of the pineapple industry, Haliimaile became the headquarters of the newly organized Maui Pineapple Company in 1931. The area around the village are planted still in pineapple and in sugar cane.